Book Name: Mao’s Last Dancer Author: Li Cun Xin About this book: Mao’s Last Dancer is an autobiography of Li Cun Xin’s life. He, at a tender age, was taken away by the Red Army and learnt ballet at Beijing’s Dance Academy. He was lucky to be selected to train at the United States. In the book, he shares about the experience of moving to the United States, his thoughts on the different Communist and Capitalist ideas China and the United States has, and even getting caught and kept in the Chinese Embassy in the United States, when he refused to return back to China. Thoughts of this book: Mao’s Last Dancer inspired me as it talks about dreams. Li Cun Xin hated to be a dancer initially as he was forced to attend school at thee Beijing Dance Academy. However, his dance teacher inspired him so much that even though he was criticised for not being agile enough, he trained hard each day. He attached sand bags to his legs and while others were sleeping, he woke jump up the stairs just so that he will be ‘lighter’. He practised his moves so hard that he would light up a candle and practise dancing, just so that he will not be caught and forced back to sleep. His efforts paid off and he earned the chance to fly to the United States and start his illustrious career. All of us have dreams. Some of us want to be able to travel round the world, while others want all the money in the world under their feet. However, not all of us can accomplish them. We give up when we face difficulties. We may not even dare to try as we are scared of failure or may just feel that our dreams are just impossible to achieve. Who would have thought that Li Cun Xin would be able to start a career, whats more in a foreign country in America, where relationships between China and the United States are so tense? That’s why, this book inspired me to just go and fight for my dream, persevere on even though it may be hard and challenging, even if it’s impossible, because who knows, one day, my dream may just become reality. Another theme that caught my attention in the book is the contrast between to ideas- Communist and Capitalist. Li Cun Xin mentions heavily in the book how free he can be in the United States, as compared to China. In China, everything that was done there had to have Communist Ideas, and even in dances; they had to reflect the beauty and elegance of Communism. As such, Li Cun Xin felt very restricted and he speaks about propaganda (like the world is disturbing and terrible except China) in great detail. This gave me a good account of what Communism really felt like from a perspective of a citizen being governed by Communist Ideas and since I am studying Communism in History now, I was pretty shocked on how scary and terrifying Communism can be. (405)words Rating of book: 4/5 (Good book, definitely recommend to all)
Author: Li Cun Xin
About this book:
Mao’s Last Dancer is an autobiography of Li Cun Xin’s life. He, at a tender age, was taken away by the Red Army and learnt ballet at Beijing’s Dance Academy. He was lucky to be selected to train at the United States. In the book, he shares about the experience of moving to the United States, his thoughts on the different Communist and Capitalist ideas China and the United States has, and even getting caught and kept in the Chinese Embassy in the United States, when he refused to return back to China.
Thoughts of this book:
Mao’s Last Dancer inspired me as it talks about dreams. Li Cun Xin hated to be a dancer initially as he was forced to attend school at thee Beijing Dance Academy. However, his dance teacher inspired him so much that even though he was criticised for not being agile enough, he trained hard each day. He attached sand bags to his legs and while others were sleeping, he woke jump up the stairs just so that he will be ‘lighter’. He practised his moves so hard that he would light up a candle and practise dancing, just so that he will not be caught and forced back to sleep. His efforts paid off and he earned the chance to fly to the United States and start his illustrious career.
All of us have dreams. Some of us want to be able to travel round the world, while others want all the money in the world under their feet. However, not all of us can accomplish them. We give up when we face difficulties. We may not even dare to try as we are scared of failure or may just feel that our dreams are just impossible to achieve. Who would have thought that Li Cun Xin would be able to start a career, whats more in a foreign country in America, where relationships between China and the United States are so tense? That’s why, this book inspired me to just go and fight for my dream, persevere on even though it may be hard and challenging, even if it’s impossible, because who knows, one day, my dream may just become reality.
Another theme that caught my attention in the book is the contrast between to ideas- Communist and Capitalist. Li Cun Xin mentions heavily in the book how free he can be in the United States, as compared to China. In China, everything that was done there had to have Communist Ideas, and even in dances; they had to reflect the beauty and elegance of Communism. As such, Li Cun Xin felt very restricted and he speaks about propaganda (like the world is disturbing and terrible except China) in great detail. This gave me a good account of what Communism really felt like from a perspective of a citizen being governed by Communist Ideas and since I am studying Communism in History now, I was pretty shocked on how scary and terrifying Communism can be.
(405)words
Rating of book: 4/5 (Good book, definitely recommend to all)